Does exposure to ethnic minorities change the majority's attitudes towards them? We investigate this question using novel panel data on attitudes from a general-population sample in the Netherlands matched to geographical data on refugees. We find that people who live in neighborhoods of refugees for a sufficiently long time acquire a more positive attitude. Instead, people living in municipalities hosting refugees, but not in their close neighborhood, develop a more negative attitude. The positive neighborhood effect is particularly strong for groups that are likely to have personal contact with refugees suggesting that contact with minorities can effectively reduce prejudice.
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Citation
Albrecht, S, R Ghidoni, E Cettolin and S Suetens (eds) (2020), “DP15237 Exposure to ethnic minorities changes attitudes to them”, CEPR Press Discussion Paper No. 15237. https://cepr.org/publications/dp15237
